The 20 Best Wrestling Matches of 2023

The 20 Best Wrestling Matches of 2023

Originally Written for ONE37PM

Hey everyone! It’s The Wrestling Classic here with another list for ONE37pm. It’s that time of the year when everyone shares their favorite matches of the year as the year comes to a close. It’s always a difficult task but it’s always good to have a catalog of matches that fans can look back on years from now so here we are. I’m sure you’ll come back to this list of the best wrestling matches of 2023 as a nice time capsule in the far-flung future. This was a year full of great matches from across the wrestling world. There have been so many great matches this year that it would be impossible to narrow it down to twenty matches without missing a few. I don’t even think the honorable mention will do this year justice. I say this often but this generation is SPOILED with great wrestling that it’s hard to remember every awesome match. I tried to make sure this list was a good combination of great in-ring action and matches that were just truly memorable.

Honorable Mentions

NOAH The New Year 2023 – 01/01/23

GHC Heavyweight Championship

Kaito Kiyomiya (c) vs. Kenoh

AEW Dynamite – 01/11/23

Bryan Danielson vs. Kenosuke Takeshita

AEW Dynamite – 01/18/23

Bryan Danielson vs. Bandido

NXT Vengeance Day – 02/04/23

NXT North American Championship

Wes Lee (c) vs. Dijak

AEW Dynamite – 02/08/23

Bryan Danielson vs. Rush

WWE Elimination Chamber – 02/18/23

Elimination Chamber Match for the WWE United States Championship

Austin Theory (c) vs. Seth Rollins vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Bronson Reed vs. Damian Priest vs. Montez Ford

WWE Elimination Chamber – 02/18/23

Undisputed WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns (c) vs. Sami Zayn

NJPW Battle in the Valley – 02/18/23

Loser Leaves NJPW Match (Had Kingston Lost, He Would Have Needed White’s Permission to Continue to Compete in NJPW)

Eddie Kingston vs. Jay White

NJPW Battle in the Valley – 02/18/23

IWGP Women’s Championship

Kairi (c) vs. Mercedes Mone

Stardom Triangle Derby – 03/04/23

AZM vs. Starlight Kid

AEW Revolution – 03/05/23

AEW World Trios Championship

The Elite (c) vs. House of Black

NXT Roadblock – 03/07/23

Jailhouse Street Fight

Tony D’Angelo vs. Dijak

AEW Dynamite – 03/21/23

Kenny Omega vs. El Hijo Del Vikingo

ROH Supercard of Honor – 03/31/23

El Hijo Del Vikingo vs. Komander

NXT Stand & Deliver – 04/01/23

NXT North American Championship

Wes Lee (c) vs. Axiom vs. Dragon Lee vs. Ilja Dragunov vs. JD McDonagh

WWE WrestleMania: Night One – 04/01/21

Seth “Freakin” Rollins vs. Logan Paul

NJPW Sakura Genesis – 04/08/23

IWGP Women’s Championship

Mercedes Mone (c) vs. AZM vs. Hazuki

WWE SmackDown – 05/12/23

Edge vs. Rey Mysterio vs. AJ Styles

WWE Night of Champions – 05/27/23

WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Seth “Freakin” Rollins vs. AJ Styles

NXT Battleground – 05/28/23

Last Man Standing Match

Ilja Dragunov vs. Dijak

NJPW Dominion – 06/04/23

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship

Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Shota Umino

AEW Dynamite – 06/14/23

AEW World Championship

MJF (c) vs. Adam Cole

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door – 06/25/23

AEW International Championship

Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr vs. Daniel Garcia

AEW Collision – 07/08/23

FTR  vs. Juice Robinson and Jay White

ROH Death Before Dishonor – 07/21/23

ROH Women’s World Championship

Athena (c) vs. Willow Nightingale

Stardom 5Star Grand Prix – 08/08/23

Giulia vs. Mariah May

NJPW G1 Climax 33: Night 18 – 08/12/23

Tetsuya Naito vs. Will Ospreay

AEW Collision – 08/12/23

CMFTR vs. House of Black

RevPro 11 Year Anniversary – 08/26/23

Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi

WWE Payback – 09/02/23

Steel City Street Fight for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (c) vs. The Judgment Day

NXT No Mercy – 09/30/23

Extreme Rules Match for the NXT Women’s Championship

Becky Lynch (c) vs. Tiffany Stratton

AEW WrestleDream – 10/01/23

Two Out of Three Falls Match for the TNT Championship

Christian Cage (c) vs. Darby Allin

NJPW Royal Quest III – 10/14/23

IWGP United Kingdom Heavyweight Championship

Will Ospreay (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

NJPW Power Struggle – 11/04/23

Will Ospreay vs. Shota Unimo

NJPW Lonestar Shootout – 11/10/23

NJPW World Television Championship

Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey

Impact Wrestling – 11/16/23

Will Ospreay vs. Josh Alexander

WWE Survivor Series – 11/25/23

Women’s WarGames Match

Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, Shotzi, and Becky Lynch vs. Damage CTRL

AEW Collision – 12/02/23

Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston

WWE Raw – 12/04/23

WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Seth Rollins (c) vs. Jey Uso

AEW Dynamite – 12/27/23

Swerve Strickland vs. Jon Moxley vs. Jay White

20. CM Punk (c) vs. Samoa Joe

01 samoa joe vs cm punk 2023 08 27 aew all in 0011
AEW

AEW All In – 08/27/23 (“Real World Championship”)

There were over 70,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in the United Kingdom for 2023’s monumental edition of AEW All In. This event would be AEW’s biggest event to date and the match to kick it off ended up being a hell of a barnburner. Little did we know it would be CM Punk’s final match in All Elite Wrestling. It was fitting that it was against Samoa Joe. The card for this show was stacked but for some reason, the match that opened the show ended up being recognized by many as the most memorable one. It was just a straightforward old-school wrestling match. Punk even won his last AEW match with his rarely-seen Pepsi Plunge finisher. This bout was a nice ode to Punk’s non-WWE career before returning to the WWE in November.

19. Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus

WWE Payback – 09/02/23 (Steel Cage Match)

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